HTPC based on i3 Sandy Bridge Platform

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khanmadari

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Folks been planning to build HTPC since couple of months, but so far not able to finalize on configuration. Have read many discussions on this forum but still in confused state.

To begin with will state my basic requirements

1. Media Server for streaming media (Movies / Music) to PS3 and SB Tocuh
2. Play HD media in my Home Theatre setup through receiver (in future send DTS MA and HD Audio signal for by BD Rips)
3. setup will be always on 24/7 so power consumption will play key role in decision making process
4. Plan to use XBMC windows edition

For ripping my DVDs and BD collection I plan to use my existing desktop.

I have four options as follows - Please not common components are
<<<<
Cabinet Any Std Cabinet Rs. 2000
RAM DDR3 - 2 sims of 2GB Rs. 2000
HDD 2TB Rs.4500
PSU 300W Rs.1000
Have Windows 7 Family pack unused license
>>>>

1. Intel - Sandy Bridge
CPU Intel Core i3 2100 Rs. 5500
GPU MOBO Intel Desktop Board DH67BL-B3 uATX, Socket 1155 Rs.5500

Total 20500

2. Intel - Dual Core with discrete Graphics card
Intel Dual Core 3.2 GHz E5800 Rs.3200
Radeon HD 6570 Rs.4500
Asus MotherBoard - P5G41T-M-LX Rs.2500

Total - Rs. 19700

3. AMD

AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz 3100
Radeon HD 6450 3000
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX Rs. 2500

Total - Rs. 18100

4. AGP based

Msi E350IA-E45--AMD Fusion Platform 6900

Total - 16400

Please feel free to add any options or update and but for sure can advise me on above options.
 
Last edited:
hi baijuxavior,

You missed my 4 requirements in my thread, (my bad due to lengthy post). I want this machine to also act as media center, which will host
1. Squeezbox Server
2. PS3 Media Server
for streaming my media files to PS3 and SB Touch.

Rajesh
 
1. The fusion based system will be enough for streaming purpose
2. You can play full hd media files with hd audio pass through using it.
3. The fusion apu draws just 19W of power. So power consumption is very low and ideal for 24X7
4. You can use XBMC

Actually the thread by sam9 is very informative and me too is inclined to build one in the future.
 
I think a Fusion based system will meet all your requirements -- especially the need for minimum power consumption.

The complete system would typically consume not more than 28-30 watts at idle. At medium to full load (playing 1080p content) it will not consume more than 40 watts.
 
It also work out to be cheaper option for me.
But will it support my future upgrade plans as

- plan to host at least 5 - 2 TB Hard drives.
- TV tuner card for recording my TV (not my current wishlist but you never know)

Rajesh
 
Well, I don't think expansion will be that much of a problem if you plan right in the beginning.

That is, if you get a uATX board like the Asus E35M1 M Pro, you'll have 3 expansion slots on the board. (It could be 4 slots. I don't remember the exact number, and I'm on my phone with an EDGE connection so I can't check rightaway either :( )

I think that mobo gives you 4 or 5 SATA connections so more HDDs will not be a problem.

EDIT: There are 3 PCIe slots & one PCI slot, and 5 SATA headers on that board.
 
Last edited:
I searched for the P8Z68-V PRO in Indian online dealers / ebay, could not find one shop indicating price. Ditto for Asus India website.

Is P8Z68-V PRO is available in Indian market, let me know. I am planning to go to Lamignton rd, next week.

Rajesh
 
I am not much a Fusion supporter, no hard and fast reason, but I'd go with i3 based system, specially if you wanna go the 3D way in future. My recommendation

1. Core i3 2100............. 5500
2. ASUS p8h67 Board......5700
This H67 based board is top quality for its price and supports Intel''s sandybridge HD graphics that supports HD bitstreaming as well. So you save on a separate GPU. How ever if you wanna go the 3D way in near future a dedicated GPU is recomended.
3. nVidia GT440 (XFX prefered, else Zotac is good) ......... 4500
Reason ATI is not suggested here is that ATI has some rare driver issues with A/V 3D Bitstreaming plus nVidia with its CUDA technology uses ffdshow in a much better way then ATI.
4. Dont go for any cheapo cabinet. A decent cabbie would not only give a decent HTPC feel its hell lot quiet and hosts some decent HTPC oriented features as well. opt anything from Silverstone or thermaltake. Avoide Coolermaster.......... starts from 6000
5. Lastly, go XBMC way, I am not sure if you checked out my thread which "baijuxavior" listed, but since there was no comment I assume you didnt. Anyway the point is, it shows the power of XBMC and how it gives a quality feel to your HTPC. Plays all contents and also supports TPA for playback of ISO in order to be able bitsrteam HD audio (DTS MA and DD THD) ....... till the time developers dont get inbuild support for HD Audio.
 
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The HD Graphics from Intel is total rubbish for videos. Though it has DXVA2 acceleration in theory, it doesn't work many a times. L5.1 is completely unsupported and there's no way to maintain a 23.976 frame rate lock on intel. core i3 based systems are best avoided unless you wanna plonk in a dedicated graphics card.
 
sam9s said:
I am not much a Fusion supporter, no hard and fast reason, but I'd go with i3 based system, specially if you wanna go the 3D way in future. My recommendation

1. Core i3 2100............. 5500
2. ASUS p8h67 Board......5700
This H67 based board is top quality for its price and supports Intel''s sandybridge HD graphics that supports HD bitstreaming as well. So you save on a separate GPU. How ever if you wanna go the 3D way in near future a dedicated GPU is recomended.
3. nVidia GT440 (XFX prefered, else Zotac is good) ......... 4500
Reason ATI is not suggested here is that ATI has some rare driver issues with A/V 3D Bitstreaming plus nVidia with its CUDA technology uses ffdshow in a much better way then ATI.
4. Dont go for any cheapo cabinet. A decent cabbie would not only give a decent HTPC feel its hell lot quite and hosts some decent HTPC oriented features as well. opt anything from Silverstone or thermaltake. Avoide Coolermaster.......... starts from 6000
5. Lastly, go XBMC way, I am not sure if you checked out my thread which "baijuxavior" listed, but since there was no comment I assume you didnt. Anyway the point is, it shows the power of XBMC and how it gives a quality feel to your HTPC. Plays all contents and also supports TPA for playback of ISO in order to be able bitsrteam HD audio (DTS MA and DD THD) ....... till the time developers dont get inbuild support for HD Audio.
Click to expand...

Thanks Sam, I did checked with your thread on XBMC, really appreciate your efforts on the HTPC building project and sharing with forum members who can leaverage on your experience.

And you have echoed my view on future proof system, by going Intel Sandy bridge route, so I can just go ahead with CPU and MOBO, which will be good enough for me todaybut later on add on dicrete GPU to keep up with technology.
About the Cabinets, I still not decided, will take call when core components are finalized and balance budget (total budget is of about 22K). But sure as advised will get good HTPC cabinet.

We have good following for AMD fusion platform in this forum, which is again fine solution for my requirements, but I want to ensure my system will work for next three years minimum.
my desktop which I bought about four years ago is still good system to recon with ie.Intel Quad core 9000, Gigabit Gefore 8800 GT 512 MB RAM, 4GB RAM,


reignofchaos said:
The HD Graphics from Intel is total rubbish for videos. Though it has DXVA2 acceleration in theory, it doesn't work many a times. L5.1 is completely unsupported and there's no way to maintain a 23.976 frame rate lock on intel. core i3 based systems are best avoided unless you wanna plonk in a dedicated graphics card.
Click to expand...

reignofchaos - I have read some positive feedback on AVSforums and infact there is dedicated link for Sandy bridge based HTPC.
I am sharing link here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1302559
 
Last edited:
reignofchaos said:
The HD Graphics from Intel is total rubbish for videos. Though it has DXVA2 acceleration in theory, it doesn't work many a times. L5.1 is completely unsupported and there's no way to maintain a 23.976 frame rate lock on intel. core i3 based systems are best avoided unless you wanna plonk in a dedicated graphics card.
Click to expand...

lol you obviously dont know what you are saying. I have actually assembled an i3 with H67 board connected with Denon AVR with LG LCD and Intel HD graphics works like a charm with full 5.1 bit streaming and absolute smooth video........The only thing which I was not much satisfied was the 3D support.............

Have you actually even tried the combination, if not you shouldn't claim things which you haven't actually tried by yourself.

and BTW i3 based HTPCs are supposed to be the top contenders for a decent HTPC ...... AVS Forum is flooded with the information. One such link is shared by khan himself
 
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khanmadari said:
About the Cabinets, I still not decided, will take call when core components are finalized and balance budget (total budget is of about 22K). But sure as advised will get good HTPC cabinet.
Click to expand...

22K I hope is excluding any kind of display .... if yes then its more than enough ....

Core i3 2100 .......5500
ASUS p8h67 ........5700
cabinet Silverstone Sugo Series SG02B-F00020 ................4100
PSU .....CM 450W.............. 3500
DVD RW ...............1000
RAM Corsair/G Skill 2GB 1333 Mhz ...... 1100
HDD 1TB WD Caviar Green .................2500
================================
TOTAL------------------------------------ 23400
================================

Almost within your budget ...... :)

You can add GPU later if you want ..... along with HDD for more space .......
This config will support all media playback, with full HD audio bitstreaming if connected with an AVR.
You just need to add a GPU if you want to go 3D way in future ...... :)
 
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sam9s said:
22K I hope is excluding any kind of display .... if yes then its more than enough ....

Core i3 2100 .......5500
ASUS p8h67 ........5700
cabinet Silverstone Sugo Series SG02B-F00020 ................4100
PSU .....CM 450W.............. 3500
DVD RW ...............1000
RAM Corsair/G Skill 2GB 1333 Mhz ...... 1100
HDD 1TB WD Caviar Green .................2500
================================
TOTAL------------------------------------ 23400
================================

Almost within your budget ...... :)

You just need to add a GPU if you want to go 3D way in future ...... :)
Click to expand...

yes Sam you are right, Monitor is not part of my budget which will be my old 50" Sony Bravia RPTV ( there is plan for upgrade TV, but thats in future)

I have unused DVD r/w drive which I can use for this project, on PSU front I will check out if there are good deals at Lamignton rd, so I save more to have more RAM and HDD. :)
 
^^ Thats good, but you actually would need more HDD rather than more RAM...... 2 GB is more then sufficient for an HTPC, Infact If you go Open ELEC way even 1GB is sufficient. Get more HDD for the saved money, coz thats what HTPC is for Movies and Videos ... :)
 
sam9s said:
22K I hope is excluding any kind of display .... if yes then its more than enough ....

Core i3 2100 .......5500
ASUS p8h67 ........5700
Click to expand...


Sam can you please give me source for above prices and I am going to pull trigger in first week of July. Will buy from Lamignton Rd.

Rajesh
 
khanmadari said:
Sam can you please give me source for above prices and I am going to pull trigger in first week of July. Will buy from Lamignton Rd.

Rajesh
Click to expand...

My source is nehru place Delhi.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
 
I wish to convey my regards and appreciations to all fellow members for sharing your thoughts and experiences in my HTPC built up.

:yahoo::yahoo:
Finally I completed my HTPC on windows platform (putting prices for members benefits from Lamignton RD with Proper Invoices)

1. I3 2100 + Intel DH67BL MOBO - 10250
2. 4 GB DDR3 RAM - 1200
3. 2 TB HDD - 4050
4. DVD RW - 1000
5. Circle Cabinet - 1300 with built in 400 w PSU(plan to upgrade to Silverstone in couple of months)

Initial feedback

- Sandy Bridge rocks - No flutter issues on 1080p, can pass through DTS/DD. So far not tested DTS MS /DD HD yet. will update you once tested
- CPU runs at 12% utilization on 1080 p movies with DTS out
- XBMC Rocks - excellent UI interface, using IPOD touch to control

Would like to special mention of SAM for all the support he has provided to me.

Rajesh
 
^^ Congratts Man, Good choice hardware. Any reason you went for Intel H67 instead of ASUS H67. ASUS is suppose to have better quality you know. Anyway good it see its up and running and with XBMC as well. Some quality snaps of the setup will highly be appriciated. Now start configuring XBMC per you your needs ..... it has a lot under its sleeves ..... :)
 
Wow Congrats on your purchase... do share your movie and audio experience...

@Sam - Is 2100t processor in Nehru place? I am planning to go there tomorrow incase its available there. Wana start building this now. N yes I am inclined towards the i3 than fusion (for the sake on future proofing as well as installing Mac OS on the system for office work).

The only thing that I am unsure is do I get coaxial out from the MOBO and if yes which mATX Mobo to opt for? Lastly which Cabinet to buy.

Thanks.
Vishu
 
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